Currently in the motion picture and television production industries there is no reliable means for consistently coaxing subjects of photography to look directly into the camera lens. In the current state of the art, when the subject of photography is an animal, a trainer will attempt to focus the animal's eyes on food strategically located near the camera lens. Or, a photographer may attempt to focus a small child's eyes upon a toy located near the camera lens.
However, these techniques for focusing a photography subject's attention into the lens are not effective. When food is used to focus the attention of an animal, the animal's gaze will focus upon the food in the trainer's hand, not the lens. Meanwhile, when toys are used as a focal point for small children, the children will gaze intently upon the toys. Rather than focusing the eyes of the photography subjects into the camera lens, these techniques result in focusing the subject's eyes to either side of, above, or below the camera lens. Furthermore, because these techniques do not focus the eyes of the subject directly into the camera lens as desired, the animal trainer or photographer is often required to continue coaxing the subject in the hopes of focusing the subject's attention in the appropriate location. The continued coaxing requires time and is unnecessarily stressful for the photography subject, the handler, parent, and photographer.
Another prior art technique for focusing the eye of a photography subject directly into the lens of a camera is a teleprompter. Teleprompters are primarily used by adults who must read scripts while appearing to focus directly into the camera lens. Teleprompter technology utilizes a video screen facing a one way mirror placed in front of a camera lens. The image reflected by a one way mirror usually has left and right transposed. Thus, text must be flipped electronically to be read in a reflection. A mirror image of the video screen display is then displayed directly in front of the camera lens to the photography subject thereby focusing the subject's attention directly into the camera lens.
Teleprompter technology is particularly ineffective with animals and small children. The video screen displays used with teleprompters have no apparent depth. Thus, teleprompters produce processed images which do not appear real, and animals and small children will often ignore images produced in this manner.
Furthermore, prior art teleprompters require removing the individual soliciting the response from the proximity of the photography subject. In one embodiment, state of the art teleprompters use previously recorded video or previously prepared text which is then displayed on the teleprompter mirror. In an alternate embodiment, state of the art teleprompters can utilize video cameras providing a live feed of the individual soliciting a response from the photography subject. Such an embodiment of the prior art teleprompter requires that the individual soliciting a response be located separate and apart from the teleprompter and the photography subject. Otherwise, the photography subject may be forced to distinguish between two separate areas of possible focus, the teleprompter image versus the individual soliciting the response. In addition, the logistics of shooting the solicitor compromises lighting, sound, etc., and thus interferes with the primary object of the shoot. Yet, removing a trainer or parent from the proximity of an animal or child being photographed increases the stress upon all participants.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a means for reliably and consistently reflecting a three dimensional image with left, right, top, and bottom correct directly in front of a camera lens so that difficult photography subjects, such as small children and animals, will be attracted by the reality of the reflection and thereby deceived into focusing their attention upon a desired focal point, directly into a camera lens, for example.